Tuesday 22nd September 2015 is a sad day for Kildare commuters, and indeed commuters from across the Greater Dublin Area. Minister Paschal Donohue has axed the plans for the DART Underground project which would see the Kildare commuter line directly connected to the city centre via an underground line from Heuston to Pearse. Despite evidence based research indicating that it would be of major benefit to the economy in the Greater Dublin Area, the Government have allowed the project to lapse which had already passed design and planning stages (at a cost of €40m).
It marks a depressing absence of vision to hear the Government announce that the DART Underground project will not proceed as currently designed. The project offers enormous benefits for commuters and businesses across the entire Greater Dublin Area. The decision made by Fine Gael and Labour means that opportunity will now be lost.
At September’s meeting of the Naas area council meeting I put forward a motion that cleaning and/or dredging of lakes in Naas be performed to remove surplus weed and any other waste. I raised this particular motion because of complaints from nearby residents of the lakes area in Naas that there was a lot of algae under the water and this was unsightly. The response from environment section of council was that an ecologically friendly way of cleaning the lakes would have to be found. One suggestion from the environment section was to drop bales of hay into the lakes, apparently this can work to soak up the algae and clean the water. I believe the lakes are a great asset to Naas which need to be worked on soon so residents can continue to enjoy the peaceful surroundings of the lakes.
At September’s meeting of the Naas Municipal Council I had a motion down which would see a traffic warden or lollipop lady be placed on the Sallins Road, Naas at school times to facilitate crossing of children and parents to the Scoil Bhride back gate. I raised this motion in response to several queries from parents at that school who have to cross the busy Sallins Road to get their children into school. While there is a pedestrian crossing further up the road, most parents use the back gate of the school which cuts the journey time by 10 or 15 minutes and it is understandable with young children that parents would wish to avail of this shorter route. As councillors we need to make this route as safe as possible for parents and their young kids.
The Local Enterprise Office Kildare in conjunction with North Kildare Chamber will be delivering a Retail Development Programme starting in October 2015. The programme would be of interest to independent store owners and managers who are in business in the retail, hospitality and service sector. It is split in to four workshops which will cover sales, marketing, management and customer service amongst many other areas of face-to-face business. The course commences on 13th October and costs €200. For anyone interested, please find out 